Oil Refinery
The Refinery is a machine which converts Oil into Fuel (or, in older versions of Tekkit, Liquid Biomass into Biofuel). Oil can be pumped in with Waterproof Pipes, the Refinery can be filled with buckets or you can place the refinery directly on top of an Oil Fabricator and the oil will be pumped directly into the Refinery. Fuel that is created is pumped out with a Wooden Waterproof Pipe. The conversion rate of Oil to Fuel is 1:1. These machines require extensive amounts of power. Recipe Designs Efficiency Designs More efficient designs often include a large power unit near the refineries, with multiple engines powering conductive pipe, usually gold, because of less power loss. This refinery can then also be started and shut off easily from the same redstone current. [There is no need for a localized power supply for multiple refineries. It is, however, more convenient as with any complex setup, to have a larger power supply for multiple components. However, you may use conductive teleport pipes or glass fibre cables to reduce energy loss.] Size and Minimizing the Space Usage Real refineries and Buildcraft refineries have one thing in common, they usually require a lot of space. If oil is being extracted from multiple wells, you may prefer to build a large refinery. To minimize the space used you can either build towers or build the refinery underground. Building towers is the easiest alternative. This design must, in almost all cases, be powered by a nearby engine station to work effeciently. [This paragraph tells us nothing on saving space. A properly built refinery plant does not need to take very much space at all. Keep in mind that even a single refinery can process enough oil to make fuel for over 50 combustion engines.] Power Buildcraft Engines A Redstone Engine is not recommended for running refineries as it produces very little power required for the different components. A Steam Engine is the best choice if your aim is the best total output of fuel; they do not, however, provide the best efficiency. A Combustion Engine is the most efficient choice in terms of production volume. Due to using fuel itself, though, it is not the best option for total fuel output unless you are powering the engines with lava. However, the amount of fuel used is a small fraction of what is produced. If they are filled completly with buckets of fuel, they can run for days with out having to be refilled. Combustion Engines also need to be cooled to prevent them from exploding. Energy Link Alternatively, EU from the Industrial Craft 2 mod can be used to power the Oil Refinery via an Energy Link. EU is probably the best choice for running a refinery continuously or for running massive refinery facilities. It will need aproximatly 25EU per Tick to run at maximum speed. Energy Usage Refineries use a considerable amount of energy and it is probably best to supply it using Conductive Pipes, as a single Combustion Engine is insufficient. A refinery requires two Combustion Engines running on Fuel to acheive a cuboid color of "Green", but does not reach maximum production, as shown by the table below. A third Combustion Engine is required to reach the peak production, though the gain is minimal. When converting Oil -> Fuel using an Energy Link: Efficiency Indicator As a refinery is running, two small cuboids on its left and right will move up and down. The faster they move, the faster oil gets converted into fuel. The little cuboids will also be of different colours depending on the refinery's speed and efficiency, green being faster than blue, which is faster than red. Refineries are faster and more efficient (for a given energy input) when not storing any fuel. Fuel should be piped out constantly to external storage to maintain a high refinery efficiency. Redstone engines can be run full-time at the refinery's output for this purpose, without concern for overheating. They will also pull finished fuel from the refinery at a rate greater than the refinery produces it, making redstone engines an optimal choice for pumping out to storage.